Archive for the The Pantheon Category

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Posted in The Pantheon with tags on September 16, 2024 by Cade

June 28, 1712 – July 02, 1778

Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in the early 1700s in what is now Switzerland. Losing his mother (died) as a newborn and his father (just…sort of left) somewhat later on, young J-J spent his early years surrounded by upper class artists and working class artisans. The lower his class surroundings became, the more interested he became in the inner workings of the society he lived in. He loved to watch the local militias drill in the square and sympathized with them over the the ruling class armies. He loved music and thought about becoming a priest.

His teens and 20s found him bopping around Europe and taking on…more mature…relationships. He eventually landed in Paris, fathered a bunch of children, started writing, and went on to change the continent of Europe forever.

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Émile Zola

Posted in The Pantheon with tags , on May 6, 2024 by Cade

April 02, 1840 – September 29, 1902

French author, journalist and playwright, Émile Zola, is widely regarded as the preeminent writer in the Naturalism movement in literature. With more than 30 works to his credit, Zola was one of the most prominent writers of his time. A large percentage of his books centered around multiple generations of a single family living in Napoleon III’s France.

His naturalistic portrayals of common people and his negative depictions of real-life political figures led Zola to a life of activism in addition to his writing. He became an outspoken proponent of the liberalization of France and his vocal critiques gained him a lot of enemies in the public sphere.

He was tried for criminal libel and forced to flee to England for a time.

And he may or may not have been murdered.

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Alexandre Dumas

Posted in The Pantheon with tags , on February 12, 2024 by Cade

July 24, 1802 – December 05, 1870

French novelist and playwright, Alexandre Dumas, was a leading voice in the 19th Romantic literary movement. Born of a mixed-race lineage stemming from the Caribbean French colony known today as Haiti, Dumas used his struggles with race issues along with his travels throughout a changing European landscape to craft historical fiction that was both immediately popular and enduring. Though a successful playwright at the start of his career, his most famous works are arguably his many novels, including “The Count of Monte Cristo” and “The Three Musketeers.” Like many of his contemporaries, much of his writing was released serially and later compiled into the works we know today.

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M. de Voltaire

Posted in The Pantheon with tags on December 11, 2023 by Cade

November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778

There’s a part of me that just wants to list pop-culture references to Voltaire and move on. Considering his name has been bandied around as an indirect punchline in everything from Les Misérables to Swingers, it would be easy enough. The name alone has become shorthand for philosophy the way “Shakespeare” has become a snarky characterization for someone who writes or “Einstein” has for someone who thinks they’re smart.

But alas, the point of this blog is to outline the person, not the caricature. So, François-Marie “Zozo” Arouet was born into low-nobility in Paris at the end of the 17th century. Educated by Jesuits and forced to hold desk jobs by his father, all young Zozo wanted to do in life was write.

And write, he did.

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Marie Curie

Posted in The Pantheon with tags , on August 28, 2023 by Cade

November 07, 1867 – July 04, 1934

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, most commonly referred to as Marie Curie, was the first woman ever awarded a Nobel Prize. Skłodowska moved to Paris with her sister from their native Poland in 1891. Her natural curiosity and demanding work ethic led to great success in her academic endeavors. With multiple degrees under her belt, she embarked on a career in research in Paris. She met another researcher named Pierre Curie and the began working together. Eventually, the two fell in love and were married. Then, as is the case with most newlywed couples…they discovered “radioactivity.”

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Victor Hugo

Posted in The Pantheon with tags , on July 31, 2023 by Cade

February 26, 1802 – May 22, 1885

Most widely known as one of the greatest French writers of all time, Victor Hugo was so much more than a teller of stories. A true Renaissance Man, Hugo was a novelist, of course, but also a poet, a statesman, a dramatist, an activist, an artist…the list is lengthy. The son of a general in the Napoleonic army, Hugo moved around a lot in his youth. The stress of the constant moving led to his parents separating and he and his brother landing in a boarding school in Paris. He wrote from an early age. His first poem was submitted to a competition when he was 15. The words kept coming. In all he published more than 30 novels, 21 collections of poetry, 11 plays and countless essays as well as thousands of drawings.

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